2004 Summer Olympics / Athletics - Javelin Throw (Men)

sport	athletics
discipline	Javelin throw
gender	Men
Attendees	33 athletes from 24 countries
Competition location	Athens Olympic Stadium
Competition phase	August 26, 2004 (qualification) August 28, 2004 (final)
Medalist Andreas Thorkildsen ( NOR )   Vadims Vasiļevskis ( LAT )   Sergei Makarov ( RUS )

The javelin throw of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens was held on August 26th and 28th, 2004 in the Athens Olympic Stadium. 33 athletes took part.

Olympic champion was the Norwegian Andreas Thorkildsen . He won ahead of the Latvian Vadims Vasiļevskis and the Russian Sergei Makarow .

With Christian Nicolay and Peter Esenwein , two German participants started. Both were eliminated in qualifying.
Athletes from Switzerland, Austria and Liechtenstein were not among the participants.

Current title holders

Olympic Champion 2000	Jan Železný ( Czech Republic )	90.17 m	Sydney 2000
World Champion 2003	Sergei Makarov ( Russia )	85.44 m	Paris 2003
European Champion 2002	Steve Backley ( Great Britain )	88.54 m	Munich 2002
Pan American Champion 2003	Emeterio González ( Cuba )	81.72 m	Santo Domingo 2003
Central America and Caribbean champions 2003	Manuel Fuenmayor ( Venezuela )	72.35 m	St. George’s 2003
South American Champion 2003	Luiz da Silva ( Brazil )	79.50 m	Barquisimeto 2003
Asian champion 2003	Li Rongxiang ( People's Republic of China )	79.25 m	Manila 2003
African champion 2004	Janus Robberts ( South Africa )	21.02 m	Brazzaville 2004
Oceania Champion 2002	Gerhardus Pienaar ( South Africa )	78.31 m	Christchurch 2002

Existing records

World record	98.48 m	Jan Železný ( Czech Republic )	Jena , Germany	May 25, 1996
Olympic record	90.17 m		Sydney final , Australia	September 23, 2000

Remarks:

• All times are based on Athens local time ( UTC + 2 ).
• All widths are given in meters (m).

qualification

The qualification was carried out in two groups. The qualification distance for direct entry into the final was 81.00 m. Since only ten athletes reached this distance (highlighted in light blue), the final field was filled with the next best athletes from both groups to twelve participants (highlighted in light green). Finally, 80.86 m had to be achieved to participate.

Group A

August 26, 2004, 8:05 pm

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Breaux Greer	United States	87.25	-	-	87.25
2	Sergei Makarov	Russia	86.08	-	-	86.08
3	Esko Mikkola	Finland	83.64	-	-	83.64
4th	Andrus Värnik	Estonia	83.25	-	-	83.25
5	Matti Narhi	Finland	81.06	-	-	81.06
6th	Steve Backley	Great Britain	80.60	80.68	80.39	80.68
7th	Gerhardus Pienaar	South Africa	79.95	74.69	79.56	79.95
8th	Christian Nicolay	Germany	79.77	x	78.50	79.77
9	Voldemārs Lūsis	Latvia	79.27	x	x	79.27
10	William Hamlyn-Harris	Australia	69.64	74.34	77.43	77.43
11	Peter Zupanc	Slovenia	74.11	72.42	77.34	77.34
12	Miroslav Guzdek	Czech Republic	76.45	75.36	75.75	76.45
13	Gergely Horvath	Hungary	73.45	73.95	72.05	73.95
14th	Ronny Nilsen	Norway	x	73.46	x	73.46
15th	Manuel Fuenmayor	Venezuela	72.26	68.72	72.14	72.26
16	David Brisseault	France	68.70	71.86	69.58	71.86
17th	Marián Bokor	Slovakia	68.21	71.74	67.73	71.74

Group B

August 26, 2004, 9:50 pm

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	Expanse	annotation
1	Vadim's Vasiļevskis	Latvia	83.43	-	-	83.43
2	Alexander Ivanov	Russia	82.18	-	-	82.18
3	Tero Pitkämäki	Finland	82.04	-	-	82.04
4th	Andreas Thorkildsen	Norway	81.74	-	-	81.74
5	Jan Železný	Czech Republic	81.18	-	-	81.18
6th	Ēriks Rags	Latvia	77.92	80.84	-	80.84
7th	Isbel Luaces	Cuba	80.07	77.53	79.07	80.07
8th	Li Rongxiang	People's Republic of China	79.73	x	79.94	79.94
9	Yukifumi Murakami	Japan	77.25	77.60	78.59	78.59
10	Oliver Dziubak	Australia	77.21	78.53	75.57	78.53
11	Peter Esenwein	Germany	75.18	73.76	78.41	78.41
12	Sergei Voinov	Uzbekistan	74.68	74.08	72.71	74.68
13	Stuart Farquhar	New Zealand	74.24	73.07	74.63	74.63
14th	Nick Nieland	Great Britain	68.86	71.31	72.79	72.79
15th	Jae Myong Park	South Korea	63.01	67.60	72.70	72.70
16	Edi Ponoš	Croatia	66.73	x	71.43	71.43
DNS	Boris Henry	Germany

final

August 28, 2004, 8:40 p.m.

Twelve athletes had qualified for the final, ten of them by qualifying distance and two more by their placements. Three Finns, two Latvians and two Russians were represented, as well as one participant each from Estonia, Great Britain, Norway, the Czech Republic and the United States.

The javelin was the only male discipline in the throw / push area at these Olympic Games in which there were no doping-related disqualifications.

The dominator Jan Železný from the Czech Republic, who had largely dominated the javelin throwing scene in the 1990s and the beginning of the 21st century, was no longer in the shape of his heyday, which was also reflected in his result here in Sydney as an Olympic sub. Other important javelin throwers of the last generation such as the Greek Konstandinos Gatsioudis . the Finn Aki Parviainen and the two Germans Boris Henry and Raymond Hecht were completely absent. So here in Athens a whole new elite of javelin throwers had to develop. The favorites were Russian world champion Sergei Makarow, runner-up world champion Andrus Värnik from Estonia, US World Cup fourth Breaux Greer and Železný's former main competitor Steve Backley from Great Britain, who, however, was no longer in top form in previous years.

It was very close in the final. With his first throw of 84.95 m, Latvian Vadims Vasiļevskis initially took the lead. Behind him lay Makarow - 84.84 m, Thorkildsen - 84.82 m, the Russian Alexander Ivanov - 83.31 m and Värnik - 83.25 m. In the second round, Thorkildsen climbed to 86.50 m, taking the lead. The Latvian Ēriks Rags improved to 83.14 m and was in sixth position with only a small gap on the medal ranks. The Finn Tero Pitkämäki was not far behind with his 83.01 m. After that, however, next to nothing happened. Only Backley managed to improve in round three with 84.13 m and was fourth. This was the result until the end.

Olympic champion was Andreas Thorkildsen, silver went to Vadims Vasiļevskis, bronze to Sergei Makarow. Steve Backley was fourth ahead of Alexander Iwanow, Andrus Värnik, Ēriks Rags and Tero Pitkämäki.

The level of this competition did not come close to the level of the international championships of the recent past, when apart from the world championships of the previous year there were consistently widths of just under or over ninety meters - mostly even through several throwers - at the top. The new "elite" were not as advanced as the best javelin throwers before them.

space	Surname	nation	1st attempt	Second attempt	3. Attempt	4th attempt	5th attempt	6th attempt	Bottom line	annotation
1	Andreas Thorkildsen	Norway	84.82	86.50	80.96	x	-	-	86.50
2	Vadim's Vasiļevskis	Latvia	84.95	83.95	x	x	79.07	80.91	84.95
3	Sergei Makarov	Russia	84.84	x	77.59	78.00	82.51	84.32	84.84
4th	Steve Backley	Great Britain	79.62	81.48	84.13	83.02	x	81.62	84.13
5	Alexander Ivanov	Russia	83.31	82.76	81.36	80.28	78.07	79.99	83.31
6th	Andrus Värnik	Estonia	83.25	82.75	x	x	-	76.41	83.25
7th	Ēriks Rags	Latvia	77.13	83.14	81.69	x	x	78.63	83.14
8th	Tero Pitkämäki	Finland	80.38	83.01	x	x	81.19	x	83.01
9	Jan Železný	Czech Republic	76.77	79.98	80.59	not in the final of the eight best throwers			80.59
10	Matti Narhi	Finland	x	78.73	80.28				80.28
11	Esko Mikkola	Finland	76.20	79.43	76.23				79.43
12	Breaux Greer	United States	74.36	x	x				74.36

• 

  Gold medalist Andreas Thorkildsen from Norway

• 

  Silver medalist Vadims Vasiļevskis, Latvia

• 

  The Olympic sixth Andrus Värnik from Estonia

• 

  The Finn Tero Pitkämäki finished eighth in the final

Web links

• SportsReference javelin , accessed May 2, 2018
• Results on the IAAF website, accessed on May 2, 2018
• Official Report of the XXVIIIth Olympiad, Results Athletics , English / French (PDF, 3054 KB), accessed on May 2, 2018

Video

• Javelin Athens 2004 , published July 8, 2007 on youtube.com, accessed May 2, 2018

Individual evidence

1. ^ Pan American Games on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 2, 2018
2. ↑ Central American and Caribbean Championships (Men) on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 2, 2018
3. ^ South American Championships (Men) on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 2, 2018
4. ↑ Asian Championships on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 2, 2018
5. ↑ African Championships on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 2, 2018
6. ↑ Oceania Championships on gbrathletics.com, accessed May 2, 2018
7. ↑ IAAF world records, men's javelin throw , accessed on April 2, 2018